ICE Officer Shoots and Wounds Man in Austin; Attorney Says He Was Delivering for DoorDash

A federal immigration officer shot and wounded a man in north Austin on Sunday, touching off demands for an independent investigation and new scrutiny of how ICE-involved shootings are reviewed.

The shooting happened shortly before 1 p.m. local time. Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said at a Sunday news conference that he believed the man was struck once in the torso and was in serious condition. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said the man was serious but stable.

The man’s lawyer identified him as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national. Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told CBS News that Garces Perez was working for DoorDash at the time of the shooting and called his wife from his car while “yelling in pain.” DoorDash confirmed he was in the process of a delivery and said it was investigating.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said Sunday night that Garces Perez had been released from Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas “into what we believe is ICE custody.” She said he had initially been held for about six hours, during which officers declined to give his wife meaningful information about his status or circumstances.

“We are deeply concerned that his wife and family have not been permitted to see him and have not received a meaningful update regarding his current condition or whereabouts,” she said. She told CBS News that when family members rushed to the hospital, law enforcement “ran us off the property and told us we can’t even stand on the driveway.”

Federal law enforcement sources told CBS News that ICE agents were looking to apprehend a Venezuelan man living in the U.S. illegally and subject to a deportation order. The sources confirmed the man was Garces Perez. Lincoln-Goldfinch said that, based on the information available to her, he entered the United States lawfully, but she did not comment on his current legal status.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the shooting may have involved a foot pursuit, though she cautioned that the information was preliminary. Local authorities did not have many facts at that point, she added, but local police investigators were on the scene and in contact with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations. Both Davis and Watson said Austin police were not involved in the shooting.

Austin City Council member Mike Siegel, who represents District 7, alleged that an ICE officer rammed the man’s car, got out of his federal vehicle and opened fire at least five times. Siegel said he could see at least two bullet holes in a dark blue Toyota Corolla parked under an overpass. Local media reported the car had damage to its passenger-side door and what appeared to be bullet holes.

Multiple U.S. officials told CBS News that Homeland Security Investigations would lead the investigation, with the FBI assisting. The transfer of investigative responsibility for certain ICE-involved shootings from the FBI to HSI marks a notable departure from longstanding federal practice. The FBI has historically investigated assaults on federal officers and, with the Justice Department, has jurisdiction and specialized expertise in potential federal civil rights violations arising from law enforcement uses of deadly force.

HSI is a component of ICE and has not traditionally served as the principal investigative body for officer-involved shootings. CBS News reported in July that FBI field offices were instructed to defer assault-on-federal-officer investigations involving DHS personnel to HSI, including cases in which immigration agents discharged their weapons, although Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security officials denied that a formal policy change had occurred. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to CBS News’ requests for details.

A large law enforcement presence remained at the scene, along with a crowd of onlookers. U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, who represents parts of Austin, called for transparency as the shooting is investigated. “The horror has come to our city: ICE has shot a person in Austin this morning,” Casar wrote on X. “As the facts emerge, I am demanding a full, independent investigation, immediate release of the body camera footage, and accountability for any ICE officer who broke the law.”

Watson said at Sunday’s news conference that he was “very angry” about the shooting but “not surprised,” given prior ICE-related shootings in other U.S. cities. He said he had asked for local officials to be involved in the investigation and questioned ICE’s credibility to conduct its own probe. “Austinites have a right to know what happened,” he said.

James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for November’s Senate race in Texas, said in a statement that he was “closely following reports” of the shooting. “Previous incidents have shown that this agency cannot be trusted to report all the facts. We need a full, independent investigation that includes the release of any and all available footage,” he said. “As we seek further information, my prayers are with those impacted and with the Austin community.”

The shooting comes a few months after an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of Houston in July, after federal agents driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was taking his construction crew to a job site. Also in July, 25-year-old Johan Sebastián, a Colombian man, was shot by an ICE officer in Maine. The officer is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told The Associated Press.

The shootings come amid the Trump administration’s push to carry out its mass deportation agenda. While the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, arrests are still occurring. The administration’s enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.

The Austin case is likely to intensify questions about federal immigration enforcement, local police cooperation and whether investigations involving ICE should be handled by an agency outside the department. For now, the man’s family and lawyers are seeking answers, while officials in Austin are pressing for footage and an independent review.